At Hearing, Parents Seek A-through-F Grading System to Measure Local Schools

Share this:

Last week, Brooke Beresh, mother of a 1st grade student at John Hay Elementary in Seattle, told the House Education Committee that parents are hungry for easy-to-understand information about their schools. The House Education Committee was considering ESSB 5328, which would officially assign letter grades to schools based on the State Achievement Index.

SB 5328 has already passed the Senate and is now being considered by the House. Governor Inslee supports giving letter grades to schools as a way to inform parents. Washington Policy Center recently reported on how a letter-grade system would work. To find your school’s grade, see the latest Achievement Index results.

Ms. Beresh said parents talk constantly about school quality, but can’t find good information. “There is no shortage of hearsay on which schools are good and which schools are not,” she said, but getting good data on school performance is nearly impossible. She said public agency websites are very confusing and use different numbers. “Parents are basically blind on knowing the true quality of a school,” she said.

Ms. Beresh added, “Letter grades are simple and easy for everyone to understand. It is information parents can use in their decision making and their conversations. It should not be hidden away.”

The A-through-F system helps. Ms. Beresh’s school, John Hay Elementary, got an “A” on the Achievement Index. Yet nearby Coe Elementary only got a “C,” showing schools can vary widely in the same neighborhood. Ms. Beresh said “I don’t think parents in my neighborhood find a ‘C’ to be acceptable, and will work to improve it.”

The committee hearing shows parents are vitally interested in their schools, but education officials are failing to meet their need for information. Governor Inslee is right. Parents need a formal A-through-F grading system for schools, and ESSB 5328 would do just that.

[Reprinted with permission from the Washington Policy Center blog; featured image credit: ]

Share this:

Related

Liv Finne is Director of WPC's Center for Education. Prior to that position she served as an adjunct scholar focusing on education policy issues, authoring in-depth studies including An Overview of Public School Funding in Washington and Early Learning Proposals in Washington State. She is the author of Washington Policy Center's Education Reform Plan: Eight Practical Ways to Reverse the Decline of Public Schools, Learning Online: An Assessment of Online Public Education Programs, Review of Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Programs for Child Care Services, and more. Liv holds a law degree from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College. She retired from civil litigation practice to raise two children and work as business partner for a small business she owns with her husband. Liv is passionate about improving Washington’s public education system.